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3.28.2011

Go To Dress...Dress #3 Flower Garden

Go To Dress #3

The Garden Dress

I was hoping to have this dress done last week--but Saturday I spent most of the day at my in-laws house so my hubby could recuperate from a stomach bug. I don't sew on Sunday and I spent this morning cleaning all the bathrooms, light switches and anything else that might have a germ on it.

I cut the dress out of an old t-shirt. I kept the shoulder seems sewn together.

Using the existing sleeves I shortened them a little bit and cut the side seam off.

My little girl has narrow shoulders, to accommodate the neckline I added three pleats. The outer two are only 1/2 inch deep. The center pleat is 1 inch deep.

I sewed the sleeves to the body and the side seems of the dress as per the instructions. There is no waistband on this dress-it is short and I wanted more of a tunic look.
Once the dress was complete it was time to start the embellishments...

I debated between using blue or green--but I like the green result.

Here is the dye bath. I was also dying some other pants and another shirt. First I dipped the dress in to dye the upper portion. Then rolled it on to a dowel and let it soak in the bath for almost an hour stirring every few minutes.

Here is the result after washing and drying it too.

My original plan was to sew green ribbon stems attached to each flower and sew on a very colorful flower garden. I cut out a lot of different flowers and melted down the edges.

When I started putting the flowers on the dress I didn't like the look of it at all. But I did like the purple flowers against the green.

So I cut and crispified some more purple petals.

I still wasn't completely sold on the look-but it was growing on me.

I made some bigger purple flowers. And attached them at the top of the dress.

The rest of the purple petals were sewn on with a yellow zig-zag stitch.

They almost look like violets.

Ta-Da!

My little girl was so excited to wear this, she kept coming into the sewing room asking if it was done yet.

I had the cascade of little flowers continue around the side and spill on the back.

I love the look of it now.

She is becoming quite the model. I asked her to put her hands on her hips and she threw her hips to one side.